Warning: Your pasta sauce needs a spoonful of peanut butter

I tried it after reading a Bon Appetit comment from 2018 and it smoothed out the acidity way better than sugar ever did. Has anyone else messed with savory uses for peanut butter?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_morgan1mo ago

My mother-in-law actually taught me this trick back in 2009 while she was making her West African groundnut stew. She'd use a heaping tablespoon of natural peanut butter to cut the tinny taste from canned tomatoes in her spaghetti sauce. The trick works because the fat in the peanut butter grabs onto the acid molecules better than sugar does. Just make sure you use the unsweetened kind, otherwise you'll end up with a weird candy flavor in your marinara.

abby_wilson511mo ago

Funny you mention that, my aunt used to put a dab of creamy peanut butter in her chili and swore by it. Tried it once and honestly couldn't taste a difference but she was convinced it was the secret ingredient.

zarar671mo ago

Huh, my grandma once put a spoonful of mayo in her meatloaf and swore it made it tender.